Natural justice

There are a few reasons my AFL team lost yesterday in Round 1 and losing is very rare for this team. You’re not going to be interested in the sports angle but suffice to say that despite all out assault against them, they still managed to be within a whisker of victory at the end.

What might resonate though is a comment made by the coach/manager, Chris Scott. For a former player who built his own reputation on intimidation, his comments yesterday on the punk who got under the skins of a few players was significant. When asked about the reporting of his most senior player who lost the plot and landed one on the gobby kid’s jaw, he said:

“I have no issue with that. When the pressure’s that great, sometimes it does lead to a certain amount of niggling. We weren’t as disciplined as we should have been. We came for the points and we missed out. I’d love him on my side. Yes, he’s niggly. That’s within the rules. You’re allowed to get in people’s faces, you’re allowed to say nasty things to them, you’re allowed to get your head under their chin and the rules say you’re not allowed to react. I don’t have a problem with the way he plays.”

He paused, smiled a wry smile and said:

“If it was 30 years ago, he wouldn’t have been able to do that.”

What he was really saying, of course, was “before PCism came in to protect the gutless”. This punk knew he could badmouth and at one point solar-plexus punch a player behind the game and when cameras caught the victim counterpunching, the victim was now reported and rubbed out for several weeks, while the perpetrator got off scott free, just as in our court system over here:

30 years ago, the punk would have had his lights punched out and would never in a million years have got gobby with an opposition senior player, especially a decorated defender. 30 years ago, that thug would have got his just deserts and in the natural law of life, would have known his place. Now the state prevents the natural defenders in the land from defending, heaping draconian punishments on this demographic, whilst at the same time giving a green light to the crims and other assorted low-lifes.

When I was in Russia, an old lady stopped me in midwinter on the path and said: “Get indoors now – you have the start of hypothermia.” 30 years ago, it would have been a case of “the grandmother has spoken”. Even the Krays over here understood the principle. Today, in modern day Britain, I could punch her lights out for inconveniencing me, rob her and leave her to die in the cold.

Then the court would understand my understandable frustration and in a spirit of goodwill towards me, would let me off with a bond.

Except that you know very well I wouldn’t be let off. As an aging white male, I’d have gone straight to jail. As a chav, black or a woman, I’d have been given a taxpayer-funded place on a multi-thousand pound hug-a-hoody rehabilitation scheme, resulting in an NVQ.